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Wednesday, 1 June 2016

Tavel alert to Americans - "Avoid Europe"

Keep
out: State Dept urges Americans not to visit Europe

Europe
is not the place to be for American tourists this summer, according
to the State Department. A travel advisory warns US citizens there is
a risk of terrorist attacks on tourist sites and major events in the
Old World until the end of August.

Though
no specific threat was named, many European countries have already
suffered attacks connected to the so-called Islamic State (IS,
formerly ISIS/ISIL). In Belgium, 32 people were killed and 340
injured in the March 22 bombings at the airport in Zaventem and a
downtown Brussels metro station.

France
is still under the state of emergency declared last November, when
terrorists killed 130 and injured 368 in a series of attacks in
Paris.

In
the advisory issued Tuesday morning, the State Department alerted US
citizens “to the risk of potential terrorist attacks throughout
Europe, targeting major events, tourist sites, restaurants,
commercial centers and transportation.”

“The
large number of tourists visiting Europe in the summer months will
present greater targets for terrorists planning attacks in public
locations, especially at large events,” the warning said.

France
and Poland were singled out in the advisory, due to events drawing
large crowds of people. The State Department specifically named the
July 2-24 Tour de France cycling race, and the European soccer
championships, scheduled from June 10 to July 10 at venues across
France.

Poland
is imposing additional border controls and security measures between
July 4 and August 2. The Eastern European country is expecting up to
2.5 million people in Krakow for the Roman Catholic Church’s World
Youth Day events, scheduled for July 26-31.

US
citizens should be aware that the “local infrastructure may be
strained due to the large number of visitors,” the State Department
said.

Americans
were also urged to avoid crowds, “exercise vigilance when in public
places or using mass transportation,” and be prepared for
additional security measures and “unexpected disruptions.”

“Last
year before the terror attacks began, the US also issued a warning.
That warning in the report was actually bluntly ignored by most of
the countries in Europe. So this comes as no surprise that they’ve
made this announcement. And, of course, they’re concerned that the
security forces as a whole is not paying attention to the growing
threat of ISIL,” Ricardo Baretzky of the European Center for
Information policy and Security told RT.

Baretzky
says that besides the Euro 2016 in France, Europe has become unstable
due to growing protest movements, which also plays into the hands of
terrorists.

“There
is a lot of things happening at the moment. We have also seen
instability movements happening across Europe: we see the riots in
France, we see the riots in Brussels today, a few weeks ago in
Berlin. So, there’s a growing movement on the ground. There are two
factors of risk: the one – security risk of external threats and
the risk from internal threats. So, both factors is a dangerous
situation in this point of time,” Baretzky said.